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Dr. David C. Driskell (1931–2020)

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Dr. David C. Driskell (1931–2020) THIS SKOWHEGAN JOURNAL IS DEDICATED TO Dr. David C. Driskell (1931–2020) Alumnus: 1953 Faculty: 1976, 1978, 1991, 2004 Board of Governors: 1975–1989 Board of Trustees: 1989–2002 From left to right: Al Blaustein (A '46, '53, F '69-'70, '81), Jacob Lawrence (F '54, '68-'72, Advisory Committee: 2003–2020 '89, '96), David C. Driskell, and Willard Cummings (F '46-'52, '54-'56, '58-'59, '61) at Skowhegan, 1968. Lifetime Legacy Award Recipient, 2016 2 3 Remembering Dr. David C. Driskell “The achievements of David C. Driskell are as grand as held the title of Distinguished University Professor of practices—and in doing so, he has opened a public Mount Everest,” wrote Keith Morrison in the foreword Art, Emeritus. It was also where The David C. Driskell dialogue that has allowed other artists the freedom to to Julie McGee’s David C. Driskell: Artist and Scholar. Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of do the same. Many of the conversations we have in Summarizing his life in this moment, in words that African Americans and the African Diaspora is named the art world today come from his work. Skowhegan’s seem too small, too mundane is like trying to squeeze in his honor. world, and the art world have been forever changed, Mt. Everest into a snow globe. The thing about Mt. made richer, made more radical, made boundary- Everest at a distance is that, for most of us, it exists in Over his long and prolific career, David received breaking through his stewardship and care. the imaginary. And David, in his life and in his practice, thirteen honorary Doctorates. This is a difficult time, but David’s passing is a reminder is also something of a legend. Until you met him, you His own work had been included in over 26 solo could only imagine him. You’d hear stories—you’d of what to do in difficult times. He often told a story exhibitions and group exhibitions from around the about his parents, despite the social restrictions put see the pictures—but you, yourself, aren’t ever close world: Port Elizabeth, South Africa; Santiago, Chile; enough to touch. on his body, his mobility, his development as a black and New York—all of which will be the subject of a man in the Jim Crow South, encouraging his continued Like all great legends, David forever changed the lives forthcoming career retrospective which will travel education “if [he] wanted something different than this.” of so many. The common ground between his work to the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, the Phillips as an artist, teacher and art historian was his ability Collection in Washington, DC, after its 2021 launch You work, you care, you change circumstances in spite to propose an alternative to our understood realities. at the High Museum in Atlanta which established the of the world around you. You alter history, you create He was a dissector and a re-builder, who trained his David C. Driskell Prize in 2005. It was the first national new histories, and in turn, new futures. And even with keen eye on the nature of humans, the environment, award to honor and celebrate contributions to the all of the distance that is part of this specific moment, on political bodies. His approach recalls the ethos field of African American art and art history. In his life, this specific unforeseeable pandemic, we find ways articulated by Senagalese poet, politician, and cultural David authored five books on the subject of African to do that work, whether seen or unseen, in danger theorist, Leopold Senghor, who addressed the nature American art, and co-authored four others. In 1976, and in safety. You do it before the world is ready for it, of making art in African cultures at the Conference of David curated the groundbreaking exhibition Two before it can even really see or accept the changes you Negro-African Writers and Artists in 1956. In the essay Centuries of Black American Art: 1750-1950, which has have made. David did it with grace and humility, and Princes and Powers, James Baldwin recounts his been a foundation for the field of African American Art because, in his own words, “someone has to do it.” So History. In 2000, he received the National Humanities words: “African art is concerned with reaching beyond many of us have space for our voices because of his Medal, awarded to him by President Bill Clinton, and and beneath nature, to contact, and itself become a work and we don’t even know it. Blue Pines, 1959. Oil on canvas, 36 x 29 in. in 2016, Skowhegan proudly awarded David with its Courtesy of Colby Museum of Art part of la force vitale. The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the first ever Lifetime Legacy Award for his contributions to But David didn’t seek glory—he was glory. force the thing contains.” Skowhegan and the world in which Skowhegan exists. This artistic image that Senghor proposes, in David’s David’s artistic accomplishments are as impressive art practice, began with vision, then the deconstruction as any one artist could want, but his proposition of This letter originally appeared on Skowhegan’s website of vision, and then a reconstruction of that vision. He an alternate to a reality that we think we know is not on April 3, 2020. sought not to portray the reality of any given object simply an act of individual visual expression— or event, but instead to infuse it: through collage, it is a transgression that David pushed beyond through line, through color, with an alternate read of the picture plane, into curatorial, art historical, and its true nature. Each work was imbued with a spiritual teaching practices that have literally changed how we exploration that in his own words “vacillate[d] between understand, look at, and even recognize the work of the ideal order and that which is experienced within black artists. the senses.” His interpretation was inherently informed Recognized as a founder of African American Art by his personal experience of the world, and yet it History, David’s curatorial and art historical work was transcended the limits of an individual and represented not about creating a category for African American the culture around him. Art, instead he, himself, has claimed a space for art David studied art at Howard University, and received produced by Black Artists to be discussed, revered, his MFA from The Catholic University of America in viewed with the same level of importance and impact Washington, D.C. He attended Skowhegan School as art produced by others. David has said: “I make of Painting & Sculpture and went on to teach at art to free myself, to give a new dimension to life, and Talladega College, Fisk University and, ultimately, at hopefully to other peoples’ lives through this personal the University of Maryland, College Park where he act of freedom I put on canvas.” He has done the same through his curatorial, writing, and research 4 5 I have always referred to David C. Driskell, respectfully and affectionately, as Mister Driskell. He was a person who influenced my painting with knowledge, understanding, and an eye on growth from the early 60s to 2020s. Last week while painting, I recalled a factor which he was aware of, prominent in my work (placement of certain colors next to each other). That represents the impact Mister Driskell has and will continue to have on my work. The renaissance man in the sense that he knew through his personal experience art from ceramic glaze to fresco, he had an encyclopedic knowledge of art, past and present, produced by African Americans. Even that which history ignored. Mister Driskell used creativity in all aspects of his life which illustrated his wide range of understanding art— intellectually and emotionally. Mister Driskell went to my first one-person exhibition in Dover, Dela., in 1966 and to date, my last one-person show in Washington, D.C. He signed his emails to me, the last dated March 2020: “Mister D.” It was my honor to know Mister Driskell. —Sylvia Snowden (A '64) 01 02 Mister Driskell used creativity in all The passing of David Driskell has without a doubt had aspects of his life which illustrated a profound effect on me the past couple of days. As someone who has lost seven family members over the his wide range of understanding past 15 months, I can only feel for his family at this time. art—intellectually and emotionally. Death within the black family is something that is both —Sylvia Snowden (A '64) challenging and complicated. I hope that the cultural bond that prevails will make his family stronger as it has mine. David Driskell’s legacy on Skowhegan is one that can only be revered. Without Driskell’s trailblazing I have known Mr. Driskell most of my adult life. He was my mentor and dear endeavors, I couldn’t do what I do and love (and also friend. I met him in my late teens at Howard University. He arrived in it in a develop a love for Maine). African American art history white lab coat for my fall or perhaps it was the spring semester painting wouldn’t exist. I am forever grateful for the conversation class. I thought he was a graduate student. we had about Tennessee and our humble love for With Mr. Driskell, on this rainy night (April 4) which has quietly closed in on HBCUs on the patio of the Red Farm at Skowhegan in me, I am pretty much speechless, except perhaps to say, he taught me 2018.
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